The Same Coin
by Iona Nineve
Summary: Henry reminisces about his family, with much prodding from Jo, leading to a particular cousin.


**Hello everyone! I'm back. I blame my long absence on school and my muses' seeming allergy to that institution. But I managed to get this one finished. It kinda a crossover but not enough to actually post it as such. Hope you enjoy, and as always reviews are welcome.**

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"What was your family like?"

"Hmm?" Henry asked not having been paying attention to her question.

"When you were growing up, what was your family like?"

"That was a long time ago, Detective."

"But you still remember. So tell me. Only-child or did you have siblings?"

"I was the oldest, second not first-born but the first to survive more than a week. I had a younger brother near my own age, he was two or three years younger, however he died at five years old." Jo's eyes were wide with surprise at the amount of childhood death that seemed to mark the family. "Child and infant mortality were very high back then. Comparatively my family was lucky, three of us lived to adulthood, our class of course increased our chances."

"How did he die?"

"He was sick, I don't know what with, neither did the doctors."

"Is that why you became a doctor?"

"Possibly."

"Go on."

"My sister was six years younger than I. Then the baby of the family, my other brother was another year younger."

"Were the three of you close?"

"I loved them but the age difference meant we didn't spend much time together as children, I was out of the nursery by the time they came around and they were in it for the time before I went off to school. As adults were became closer. And I threatened a few of Anna's suitors in my day."

"Henry Morgan, protective big brother." Jo mused. "So who were you close to?"

"I was very close with a cousin on my mother's side."

"What about him?"

"He was three years older than me, ironically born on the very day that the american Declaration of Independence was signed. The two of us were two sides of the same coin. We were nearly identical, identifiable only by our difference in height. Yet our personalities were quite different. Each of us were the son that the other's father would have preferred. Not entirely though, through the years we were both accused of having revolutionary sympathies; being the French not American, Life Liberty and Fraternity. It may have been truer than we thought, but we were loyal young englishmen, not revolutionaries. His father arranged with a Naval captain he was acquainted with to take him on as a midshipman aboard his ship when he was seventeen."

"This cousin got a name?"

"I do seem to have neglected that. Yes, his name was Horatio." She snickered, trying not to laugh. "I assure you it was not so uncommon a name at the time. While I was, and remain, somewhat of a pacifist, he proved a very courageous and adept naval officer. He even had his own brand of immortality, he should've been killed ten time over in his first few years at sea alone. Nevertheless he obtained the rank of admiral, retired, and died peacefully at a ripe old age. We kept in close contact."

"Did he know about …?"

"No." Henry answered shaking his head. "The last time I saw Horatio was 1811, shortly after my marriage to Nora, he'd just returned from imprisonment by the French. We exchanged sevral letters before I set out for the West Indies three years later. He was sailing around France at the time of my first death. As far as he ever knew I was lost at sea and presumed dead. Nora was not particularly fond of him, nor was his first wife of me, and she never sent word to him concerning the later occurrences."

"Ever almost run into him after that?" She asked, unable to resist the question.

"Once, in the West Indies during the early 1820's. After leaving England I thought I'd go where I'd meant to in the first place. He'd been sent to settle an uprising. During an attack I was doctoring the wounded when he came ashore. I saw him, but he didn't catch sight of me. Although there was a close call when I was nearly sent to his ship as doctor by a colonel on the island."

"What was his last name?" She would have to look this one up, with exploits like these there had to be something about him online.

"I don't think I should say, you'll only snicker again."

"Come on, it couldn't be worse than Horatio."

"Oh, yes it could"

"Please, i promise I won't." She could've lived without knowing but his reluctance to symade her need to know, by power of her detective instincts.

hesitating a moment Henry relente. "Hornblower."

Jo's reaction went right past snicker to a short snort of laughter. "Really?"

"Yes, Detective, really." He waited a moment for her calm. "Now that you gotten all that out of me, its your turn. What is family like?"


End file.
